Gad 7
- David’s Sin of Counting
Between 2908-2924 AM, 1017-1001 BC
1And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against
Israel 2and He moved Satan against David, saying: “Go,
number Israel and Judah,” to bring them the evil He spoke
through Samuel the seer. 3And the king said to Joab the
captain and to the princes of the people: “Go now through
all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and
number the people, and bring me word, that I may know
the sum of them.” 4And Joab said unto the king: “May the
LORD add unto the people how many so ever they may
be, a hundredfold, and may the eyes of the LORD our
God watch over them; but, my lord the king, are they not
all my lord’s servants? Why does my lord require this
thing? And why should it be a cause of trespass unto
Israel? For the LORD has said: ‘Which cannot be
numbered for the multitude.’” 5Notwithstanding, the
king’s word prevailed against Joab and against the
captains of the host. And Joab and the captains of the host
went from the presence of the king to number the people
of Israel. 6And they passed over the Jordan, and camped
in Aroer, south of the town in the middle of the river of
Gad, and toward Jazer. 7And they came to Gilead, and
then to the land of the Hittites, to Kadesh, and they came
to Dan and Enan, and round about to Zidon. 8And they
came to the stronghold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the
Hivites and the Canaanites. And they went out to the
south of Judah, to Beersheba. 9So when they had gone
Chapter 7
21
through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of
nine months and twenty days. But Joab did not number
Levi and Benjamin, for the king’s word was abominable
to Joab. 10And Joab gave up the sum of the number of the
people unto David. And all they of Israel were eight
hundred thousand valiant men and three hundred
thousand men that drew a sword, and in Judah there were
four hundred and seventy thousand valiant men and thirty
thousand men that drew a sword. 11And the LORD God
was displeased with this act of Israel, and He sent Gad the
seer to David, saying: 12“Thus said the LORD: ‘I am the
King of Israel, and I am their portion. I am their avenger,
I am their fortress and might, and you know that it is not
with a sword or a spear that I will save, and not with a
man of valiance that draws a sword, for this is the portion
of the heathens that stand on their might and many
warriors. 13But you are not like that, for I am a lone
warrior and there is no one with Me. Why would you do
this evil to number your people? For that I will strike
Israel, so that you will know that I am the LORD in the
midst of the earth.” 14And David’s heart was grieved after
that. And David said unto the LORD: “I have sinned
greatly in what I have done; but now O LORD, I beg You,
take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have acted
very foolishly.” 15And David rose up in the morning, and
the Word of the LORD had already come to Gad the
prophet, David’s seer, saying: 16“Go and say unto David:
‘Thus says the LORD: ‘I offer you three things; choose
one of them, that I may do it unto you.” 17So Gad came to
David and told him, and said unto him: “Shall four years
of famine come unto the land of Israel and three years in
22
the land of Judah? Or will you flee three months before
your foes while they pursue you, while the sword of your
enemies overtake you? Or shall there be three days of the
sword of the LORD, which is pestilence, in your land, and
the angel the LORD destroying throughout all the land of
Israel? Now advise yourself, and decide what answer I
shall return to Him who sent me.” 18And David said unto
Gad: “I am in a great strait; let me fall, and let us fall now,
into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are great; and
let me not fall into the hand of man.” 19So the LORD sent
a pestilence upon Israel, from the morning even to the
time appointed; and there died of the people from Dan
even to Beersheba seventy thousand men. 20And God sent
an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it; and as he was
destroying it, the LORD beheld, and He repented Him of
the evil, and said to the angel that was destroying the
people: “It is enough; now stay your hand.” And the angel
of the LORD was standing by the threshing floor of
Ornan the Jebusite. 21 And David lifted up his eyes, and
saw the angel of the LORD standing between the heaven
and the earth, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched
out over Jerusalem. And David and the elders, who were
clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. 22 And David
said unto God: “Is it not I that commanded the people to
be numbered? Even I it is that have sinned and acted
wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? O
LORD my God, let Your hand be against me and against
my father’s house, but not against Your people, that they
should be plagued. Shall not the judge of all the earth do
justice?” 23And the LORD said: “They incited Satan
against you to number them, saying thus: ‘We will be like
Chapter 7
23
all the nations,’ but I am a God of justice; may I return
their high heart into their own bosoms.
24For a broken or a contrite heart I shall not
despise forever.” Psalm 51:17
25And the angel of the LORD told Gad to tell David that
David should go up and rear an altar unto the LORD on
the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 26And David
went up according to the words of Gad which he spoke in
the name of the LORD. 27And Ornan was looking and he
saw the king and his four sons with him. Now Ornan was
threshing wheat. 28And Ornan looked and saw David, and
he went out of the threshing floor, and bowed down to
David with his face to the ground. 29Then David said to
Ornan: “Sell me the place of this threshing floor, that I
may build an altar therein unto the LORD; you shall sell it
to me for the full price, that the plague may be stayed
from the people.” 30And Ornan said unto David: “Take it,
and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes;
lo, I give the oxen also for burnt offering, and the
threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the
meal offering; I give it all.” 31And King David said to
Ornan, “No, but I will verily buy it for the full price; for I
will not take that which is yours for the LORD, nor offer
a burnt offering without paying for it.” 32So David gave
Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold, and for
the cattle fifty shekels of silver, by weight. 33And David
built there an altar unto The LORD, and offered burnt
offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the LORD;
and He answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar
24
of burnt offering. 34And the LORD commanded the angel;
and he put his sword back into the sheath thereof, and the
plague was stayed from Israel.
35At that time, when David saw that the LORD had
answered him in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite,
and He did not despise him, then he sacrificed there unto
the LORD for the rest of his life. 36For David would no
longer go and sacrifice unto the LORD in the high place
at Gibeon, where there was an altar unto the LORD and a
tabernacle which Moses made, for he was terrified and
weakened because of the sword of the angel of the LORD
that he had seen.